Bubbling Up Between Them
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Secrets could build up and up and up, until finally they bubbled over in some way, whether anger or something else entirely.


Secrets are things that pile up between people, until they either can not take it anymore, or something spills out of the box. It could be heavy, laced with something like guilt or anger, that poked and prodded at the skin, until little indents, imprints, of bloody marks are left in their wake. Sometimes they explode, billowing out in shouts that pierce and ache and leave those holding onto the secrets broken, bent over under the weight, tears staining eyes, and making them just want to collapse under the weight and give up.

Not all secret holders let the insecurity, the pain, the bitterness out. Sometimes secrets issue forth in a way, not at all like one would expect. The explosion is slow; little specks fluttered out every now and again. The anger is hidden and dimmed and non-existent. Things flutter like mini-bombs, but the result is no longer something dark, something sinister. It is something delicate, that no one quite expects until one day, they wake up and it's _there_, and you can't imagine it gone anymore, even though it wasn't there yesterday. It's light, delicate as a feather, and smooth as a baby. Somehow, it's perfect in its little explosions.

Their secret was like that. One day, it festered up between them, delicate and silky smooth. There was some kind of joy to it, that felt carefully hidden and chained up. It was something on the tip of both of their tongues, quiet like another secret shared just between them. Yuki isn't sure that there are many words for this feeling, that paws and _howls _at her throat, eager to be let out and yet eager to hide at the same time. When did Souhei's eyes shine so much? Was his hair always messy and dark, delicate in moonlight, and startling in the shine of noonday? Was his voice always hoarse with emotion and beautiful when it unfolded? She isn't sure, but something is there that both hasn't been there before and has been.

Yuki's eyes close, as if suddenly it's too much. The sun is out and shining, and it _hurts_, yet it's perfect, and she pauses as if the rays are too much, too much to even consider. She wonders though if it's her imagination ran rampant from all the writing that she's been doing lately or if it's something like a bottle rocket that just takes off all of a sudden. You know, there's a beginning to it, and that it's there, but you also know that it takes off all of a sudden. Those beginnings stretch and turn into a chain reaction, that's quick, quick, _quick, _and yet it's something that took time to get to those seconds of take off.

Souhei is different, but not different at all. Yuki opens her eyes; the realization not far from her mind at all as she stares at her childhood friend, whose transfer had brought opposition and joy to her childhood. He's always been so stubborn, stubborn in offering his friendship, stubborn in love, stubbornly holding on to her secret for her. it's weird in its constancy. She knows that it's the only constant that he can hold on to, since his mom got remarried, since she had another son, since she moved on from the beginnings of Souhei's life, from that once again love that grew inconstant and stale. Sometimes, it reminds her of her brother, and sometimes it doesn't. She knows that Ame could come back again if he wanted to; sometimes she thinks Souhei's mom can't.

She wonders if she's been constant to Souhei, if her cheer is fully constant, if her presence is steady enough. If he depends on her, she can't see it. Yuki's struck by the thought as she realizes that their unlikely friendship has seen her through the roughest and harshest of waters. He keeps her steady, and she hopes that somehow she returns the favor in at least a small way.

Yuki isn't sure if this shock of feelings, both new and old, are enough to tell Souhei, so she turns to feel the actual sun before her, letting the silence that envelopes them continue to be steady and inviting. Their friendship doesn't always need words, and that's helpful for when no words come to mind, nothing that can be figured out and deduced.

* * *

Yuki's different in the way that she hasn't been, though maybe he's missed it all this time. That secret bubbles before them, and it's never been frightening since that first day. He's known her, cared for her, looked out for her, and now, he's fallen in love with her. Her secret is not scary, even as it bubbles out. Something like trust chains him to her, and it isn't threatening, but joyous. That level of trust is hard to come by, and though when he first learned it, it wasn't trust that gifted itself to him. It was self-defense. He'd been the one threatening her, without meaning to. Work, on his part, helped to build that trust up to where it couldn't reach before, but where it needed to be for that secret to be held, open among them.

Souhei felt that trust, finally, when the storm ran through town, when they stayed back at the school, both abandoned for a while, just to find each other. He'd depended on her in ways that he'd never admit to, and she'd depended on him just as much. When she shared that secret, it was not easy to bare. That level of trust was never given to him by anyone else. He was just a fun guy to be around, the illegitimate kid that his mom had, just someone, almost like an older brother to watch two before they could go home to their families again. That was all that he was, not a secret bearer, not a confidante, not a friend in the purest and closest sense.

Yuki, at her most vulnerable, gave him his best and most prized gift ever: the truth, a secret for just them to share. For Souhei, that was not a light thing either. For once, someone loved him enough to bare her soul, and he'd graciously accepted it, with just as much honesty on his part. He'd been quick to help someone riddled with guilt, quick to form a friendship, eager for some kind of companionship. That's what made him want friends when his life felt like it was being ripped from him. Now, he had a best friend; one that it wasn't easy to make, a friend that wasn't easy to befriend.

Yet Yuki was different in all the ways that he'd never expected until now, that he should have known or predicted. Secrets change people, and the longer that he held on to it for her, the more he seemed to fall in love with her. That secret, the biggest that she could have gifted him with, resonated and formed within him something a little different. It had bubbled over, but it wasn't a mad or even terrible bubbling over. It was something delicate and sweet, that he'd never known the likes of before. She understood that there was nothing easy in being a forgotten child on his part, and she'd stepped in to be his friend as his world continued to capsize around him. Her presence lifted him up, even as they struggled to fix broken homes. When her brother left, he'd stepped in for her, being the extra shoulder to cry on, being her friend, and like always, never giving up on her no matter the risk.

Souhei isn't even sure how he didn't notice these feelings that blossomed and grew before them; he just hoped that maybe one day, she'd feel the feather light weight of her secret become their secret that fluttered up in little bubbles of new emotion. Souhei had fallen in love, and it wasn't scary or uneasy or nervewracking, because it was Yuki, and he'd willingly be there to support her, even if she didn't feel this bubbling, fluttering feeling, too.


End file.
